Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Rail & Rings - How to choose? (price, quality, etc)

So many different options when it comes to rails and rings. How does one choose, or maybe it doesn't really matter?

TPS, SWFA, Vortex, Talley, Burris, Warne, Nightforce, Seekins. All seem to offer quality products and I'm just scratching the surface of brands that of offer a pic rail and rings.

For a hunting rifle, is there any decreeable difference between any of the quality stuff?

Of course you'll need to choose steel vs alum, and slight design differences. But does it really matter? Or just torque correctly, and forget about it.

I’d choose a low pic rail for a hunting rifle and rings based on the same. I’ve found that Seekins rails and rings fit my needs. And you can sometimes find that second hand for less $$’s. If it’s a tactical rifle, I’d do whatever steel base you like and same with rings since you’ll probably need more height anyway. I like old school Badger and Nightforce 1-pc. Definitely 20 MOA in whatever flavor you choose.

I’ve used tps rings and egw rails on a couple guns.

Now i like to use dnz 1 piece mounts. They are making a tactical one piece with more screws per ring mount now. And with 20 moa.

Used the Nightforce 20moa 1 piece on a rem700 i had built.

Quality
Height
Weight
Aesthetics

Typically, I weigh these four factors prioritized in that order.

Murphy;s precision can make pretty much anything you would need, not sure anyone offers more quality
APA offers some very low rings at .750!

Murphy’s Rails for the M700 are pretty high.

APA 30mm Low Rings are the lowest 👍

Seekins makes a really low 1” ring, but it’s been out of stock everywhere for a couple months.

I’ve used more Seekins rails than anything else. I’m a fan of the design for the 700. I have NF, GG&G, NEAR, Warne, Badger also on rifle’s. I’ve used McCann, Leupold MK4 (one and two piece varieties), and Talley.

The GGG Rail is a very low and sleek rail. Ignoring its parkerized finish it’s very attractive and would be a great lightweight rifle rail if it was made in Al or Ti and offered in both 0MOA and 20 MOA versions. However, it’s only offered as 0MOA in parkerized steel.

Cameron has a few options to make them pretty low also, he's making a 2 pc set for my borden right now, the screw heads are the limiting factor!

Do you know who besides Weaver makes the lowest pica tinny?

OutdoorAg, I base my decisions on the rifle design, caliber, and type of hunting it will most likely see. Take a Sako action - I wouldn't put a picatinny rail on one of these. I do agree with Kingston on his order of priorities (quality, height, weight, aesthetics) although if it is not a hard-kicker and just a knock-about range rifle I would be willing to swap quality/height.

This question is the classic "opinions are like _____, everyone has one and they all stink". I like DNZ mounts and hate Talley lightweights, that is criminal to some people here on the 'fire. I drool over precision mounts like ones from Near Precision. I think a 20 MOA picatinny rail on .308 with a 3-9x scope is silly, especially if it is 1/2" off the barrel. Other people think it is their huckleberry, more power to them.

Some mounts I currently have:
DNZ one piece on a Browning x-bolt stainless fluted 30-06
34mm Burris XTR signature rings with 25MOA of ring insert cant on a Tikka CTR 308 with factory 0 MOA rail (gets me out to ~1200 yards, just farther than the longest GAP Grind possible target in 2016. Bullet goes subsonic at 1147, who knows what happens at 1200 :))
Sako Opti-locks on a L579
Burris Signature Zee's on a T/C Icon (which BTW I think is one of the best scope mounting options ever made. Why more manufacturers don't machine bases on the action is purely due to economics)
Warne 1" split-rings on a S&W I-Bolt that came with a well engineered picatinny rail w/ recoil lug
Aero Precision cantilever mount on a coyote AR
Babro QR cantilever mount on a SHTF AR
DNZ one piece extended eye relief mount on a T/C Omega muzzleloader

Warne vertical split rings with integral front recoil lug on any Tikka T3 put together for friends

I've tried many.

My current ideal setup:

hunting rifle: Talley Lightweights
"light" varmint/tactical: EGW 20moa rail with Burris Sig Select rings
"heavy" varmint/tactical/target: EGW 20moa rail with Burris Sig XTR rings

Nice work, thank you.

I like the Talley split rings. They look great, rails are ugly.

Most of those brands listed are pretty good. I prefer a lower picatinny rail made from 7075 aluminum or steel. For scope rings I like a tradtional cross bolt and horizontal split design.

This is pretty close to my ideal setup, low steel base and low rings. The only thing I would like different is if the Burris signature rings had a bit more beef in the clamp and didn't have to be slipped onto the rail from the front or rear.

Very clean setup.

What rail and rings/bases is that?

I use mostly BO, NF, and Seekins. However, I much prefer Seekins due to no crossbolt. All work well, but Seekins’ aesthetics win for me.